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Away from the rink and the face-to-face presence of media Friday morning, Daniel Alfredsson was more candid with his thoughts on the NHL lockout.

In a radio interview done over the phone with the Team 1200's Steve Lloyd and Jason York, the 40-year old Senators captain also revealed his surgically repaired back acted up on him last month, forcing him to interrupt his training program.

"It was going really well up until December," Alfredsson, who almost retired two summers ago because of back problems, said of his preparation for the upcoming season. "I thought I really enjoyed working out, then my back stiffened up and I missed about a week there, then I had a tough time getting going again throughout December, with the holidays coming, getting prepared for that ... I found the motivation not really being there.

"The last week here I've made a push, and even if there is no hockey I decided to get the Christmas ham off my stomach. So I'm kind of gearing it up here and trying to get in good shape again."

On Thursday, Alfredsson expressed to reporters at Sensplex his sense of relief that within a week there would be an agreement on a new CBA or the cancellation of the season.

"I should probably be even more optimistic myself, but I'm kind of fed up with the whole situation, to be honest," he stated bluntly on Friday. "I think it's been very frustrating, not only personally because this could be my last chance to play in the league, but just the way the whole thing started.

"I felt with the league's first offer, they might as well have just sent one sheet of paper and said, 'OK, this is war.' I still thought maybe it could have got solved a little bit earlier, but we are where we are. And like I said, I just want to find out one way or another so I can go on and not live in this kind of bubble, where every day you get asked, 'what are you going to do, are you ready to play, what's going to happen?'

"I've been pretty even-keeled, but I'm not going to lie, it's been wearing on me as well."

Asked if he felt an agreement was close, Alfredsson said there are still quite a few issues that separate the players and owners.

"Both sides are standing strong ... It seems like there's not that much movement," he said. "I don't know if it's been a plan to get down to the last hour all the time. Sooner or later, somebody has to make a decision how far they can take it and until we get to that point, we don't really know.

"It seems that everybody knows, both sides know that if we don't get it done in the middle of December, we'll still have another month. Now we don't have that anymore, so now it's crunch time and it's up to both sides to work out a deal. If not, I think hockey is in trouble in North America."

Ottawa Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson returns to ice after being sidelined with stiff back

Away from the rink and the face-to-face presence of media Friday morning, Daniel Alfredsson was more candid with his thoughts on the NHL lockout.

In a radio interview done over the phone with the Team 1200's Steve Lloyd and Jason York, the 40-year old Senators captain also revealed his surgically repaired back acted up on him last month, forcing him to interrupt his training program.

"It was going really well up until December," Alfredsson, who almost retired two summers ago because of back problems, said of his preparation for the upcoming season. "I thought I really enjoyed working out, then my back stiffened up and I missed about a week there, then I had a tough time getting going again throughout December, with the holidays coming, getting prepared for that ... I found the motivation not really being there."